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Israel’s Dead-End Dilemma

February 23, 2017

President Trump says he’s okay with a one- or two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – whatever the two parties want – but without forceful U.S. intervention, neither option is feasible, says John Chuckman.

By John Chuckman

With its steady encroachment on Palestinian lands, Israel has created a problem that it can’t solve. That is why it has always been the case that the United States must pretty much dictate a solution, but it is unable to do so because it is paralyzed by the heavy influence of Israel on the U.S. political process and the power of America’s own apologists for Israel.

Trump’s suggestion of a one-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is welcomed by some because Israel’s settler policy is said to have made two states impossible, as it was most certainly intended to do. However, a little reflection on hard facts makes it clear that a one-state solution is just as near impossible as a two-state solution.

A single-state solution would be acceptable to all reasonable minds, but you only have to follow the news to know that Israel contains a good many unreasonable minds. Its early advocates and founders were, quite simply, fanatics, and its policies and attitudes were shaped by that fanaticism.

The Israeli establishment could simply not accept a Palestinian population with equal rights and the franchise as part of Israel. They could not do so because they have embraced an almost mystical concept of Israel as “the Jewish state.” Of course, the de facto reality of today’s combined population of Israel and its occupied territories is that Palestinians, who importantly include not just Muslims but many Christians, are already about half of the total.

And there are physical realities forming huge barriers against a single state, factors that many people don’t know. Very importantly, fertility rates in Arab populations are considerably higher than in the European Ashkenazi population, which forms Israel’s elite. That has nothing to do with ethnic characteristics. It is a result of much lower levels of affluence influencing the behavior of people having children. It is a universal reality we see.

That’s why Arabic populations are such relatively young populations with a high proportion of children. When Israel bombs a place like Gaza or Lebanon, as it does periodically (in “mowing the grass operations”), it always kills many hundreds of children because they make a big share of the population. An advanced country like Japan has low fertility and traditionally is averse to much migration. It faces a future with an aging and declining population.

All older European and North American countries have fertility rates too low to replace their otherwise declining populations. America, France, Israel or similar states simply do not have enough babies to replace their populations. That’s a fundamental reality of advanced, affluent society. People in such societies know that their children have a much better chance to survive than children in poor countries.

That’s the real reason behind most countries’ immigration policies, not generosity or kindness. They need young workers to maintain strong levels of productivity. But, of course, Israel has a serious problem with immigration, too. As the “Jewish state” it is open to only one category of migrant, and that category of people makes a tiny fraction of the world’s population. Further, most Jews live in comfortable, affluent places and enjoy easier lives than people in Israel do – places like America, Canada, Australia, Britain, France, etc.

Irrational Beliefs

So, a single-state Israel would combine low fertility Europeans with higher fertility Arabic people, thus creating a long-term trajectory for a minority-Jewish state, a reality which would be repellent to right-wing Jews and many others in light of the founding notion of Israel as a refuge from anti-Semitism, plus the vaguely-defined but emotionally-loaded notion of a “Jewish state” and the biblical myths of God’s having given the land exclusively to Jews.

You simply cannot make rational sense out of that bundle of attitudes and prejudices, yet you cannot get a rational solution to a massive problem otherwise. It is also a problem of Israel’s own deliberate making in the Six Day War. Likely, when Israel’s leadership started that war, they calculated that Palestinians would come to feel so miserable under occupation that they’d just pick up and leave over time.

Moshe Dayan, one of the architects of the war, actually spoke along those very lines of keeping the Palestinians miserable so they would leave. But their calculations were wrong. Most people, anywhere, do not pick-up and leave their native place. Otherwise the world would a constant whirlwind of migrations.

Although Israel does not discuss the issue of the relative population growth rates in public, authorities and experts there are keenly aware of the reality. It is difficult to imagine them ever embracing a single state for this reason. When you found a state on ideology and myths, as Israel was founded, you very soon bump up against some unhappy realities.

So, if there is not to be a Palestinian state, what are Israel’s other options? There seem to be only two.

One is to deport all or most Palestinians, an ugly idea which is probably also unworkable, although it has been seriously discussed among educated Israelis periodically. Apart from the Nazi-like connotations around such an act, there is the dilemma of who is going to take literally millions of people from Israel? In the past, Israeli ideologues have suggested the country of Jordan and parts of Egypt contiguous with Israel as possibilities.

But can any realistic person believe those states stand ready to take millions of people in? No, of course not, but that hasn’t stopped the ideologues of Israel from going back to the idea again and again. Of course, there is the pure ethical problem of moving millions of people against their wills and seizing all their property, but ethics have never featured large in Israel’s policies from the beginning.

The other solution is to re-create apartheid South Africa’s Bantustans, little enclaves of land with often undesirable characteristics into which you crowd all the people that you don’t want and declare that these are their new countries. We see this already in Israel, notably in Gaza, which really is a giant refugee camp resembling a concentration camp with high fences and automated machine-gun towers surrounding it. The residents are permitted almost no freedom of movement or even economic activity, as for example Gaza’s fishermen being fired on by Israeli gunboats if they stray even slightly beyond tight boundaries in the sea.

The world would not long tolerate that approach no matter how much heavy-handed influence the United States might exert. After all, for a long time, the United States protected and cooperated with apartheid South Africa, always regarding it as an important bulwark against communism. At the time, anti-communism was the fervent secular religion of the day in America. This was so much the case that the U.S. even overlooked what it absolutely had to know about apartheid South Africa’s acquisition of a small arsenal of nuclear weapons with the assistance of Israel. Israel always was keen to keep good access to South Africa’s mineral wealth.

Clearly, those two options – ethnic cleansing and full-scale apartheid – are not solutions. Realities demand either a legitimate two-state solution, which Israel’s leaders have never truly accepted while giving it time-buying lip-service, or a one-state solution that is probably even more unacceptable to Israel’s leaders and much of its population, guaranteeing, as it does, the eventual minority status of Jews.

Israel has created this terrible problem and is incapable of solving it. That is why the United States would have to basically dictate a solution, but Israel and its American supporters have invested so heavily in lobbying and pressuring the U.S. political process that American leaders shy away from asserting such a role. So, in effect, the world just goes around and around never doing anything decisively.

The macabre dance of Israel and the United States that we’ve had for decades yields today’s de facto reality of Israel existing as a protected American colony in the Middle East, one in which all kinds of international norms and laws are ignored or suspended, one where millions live with no rights and no citizenship.

John Chuckman is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company.

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39 comments for “Israel’s Dead-End Dilemma”

Anon

February 23, 2017 at 11:15 am

Israel is incapable of fair or rational decisions; only force will gain the rights of the Palestinians.
The decision is whether to invade or let ISIS or others invade; the latter is simpler and preferable.

The US does nothing because its politicians and mass media are funded only by bribery from Israel and others.
The Mideast problem is due solely to US corruption, and the US will never solve it.

Therefore Russia/Iran/Iraq should ally with Saudi Arabia and Jordan to bring ISIS/AlQaeda from Syria to conquer Israel.

Bill johns

February 23, 2017 at 12:02 pm

Yes ISIS could invade Israel After all Israel backs ISIS in Syria so it would Ivade it’s self. Another possibility is Israel could start another war in the Lebanon let’s wait and see.

Anon

February 23, 2017 at 3:19 pm

But of course ISIS is not Israel regardless of support. Any Israel/SIS alliance is fragile and dependent on the Saudi/Israel relationship, which must be unstable. AlQaeda attacked the US when it withdrew support after the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan.

If Israel starts another war, we can hope that its racist destabilizing at long last comes home to roost permanently.

Peter Smith

February 23, 2017 at 7:59 pm

That is redicilous suggestion. First of all, ISIS is not enemy of Israel and therefore it will not go there and fight against Israelis. Secondly, we shouldn’t suggest more bloodshed …. USA should stay out and let the countries in that region find a way out of this miserable situation.

Anon

February 23, 2017 at 8:54 pm

Actually ISIS is a likely enemy of Israel, and only temporarily aligned with KSA which is only temporarily aligned with Israel.
I suspect that ISIS and AlQaeda would attack Israel with KSA support if planned carefully. KSA is afraid of the jihadis coming home, but probably less so if they were given Israel.

I do not suggest more bloodshed, only that it should be in Israel, which started the problem, rather than Iraq and Syria.
There is no need for the US to send forces there to retarget the jihadis where they belong.

JWalters

February 23, 2017 at 10:21 pm

“Israel is incapable of fair or rational decisions; only force will gain the rights of the Palestinians.”

Absolutely true. And the idea that a bunch of radical Jewish terrorists can drag the world’s superpower around by the nose is ludicrous on its face. We have to look behind these religious fanatics to their money supply. A succinct, readable, and well-documented background, for readers who haven’t seen it, is in “War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror” athttp://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com

I have heard an American supporter of Israel, advocate a “get tough solution” to Israel’s dilemma: give notice to Palestinians to “leave” by a certain fixed date. On that day Israel will begin nuclear bombing of Palestinian population centers.

Palestinians will have been given due warning, and any casualties will be “their own fault”. Israel simply acted in self defense (defense of the Biblical idea of a Jewish state).

Anon

February 23, 2017 at 3:23 pm

That would be a fine opportunity for anyone to do the same to Israel, and I think most of the West would breathe a sigh of relief.

Thats a bright idea. Then we would be rid of the Palistinians and the Jews in one fell swoop. Where do you think the radio activity would go from Gaza for instance?

Bill Bodden

February 23, 2017 at 1:35 pm

When you found a state on ideology and myths, as Israel was founded, you very soon bump up against some unhappy realities.

As an old saying goes, “It couldn’t happen to “nicer” people.”

Zachary Smith

February 23, 2017 at 1:38 pm

Moshe Dayan, one of the architects of the war, actually spoke along those very lines of keeping the Palestinians miserable so they would leave. But their calculations were wrong. Most people, anywhere, do not pick-up and leave their native place. Otherwise the world would a constant whirlwind of migrations.

I expect this is an accurate observation, in part because the Palestinians have nowhere to go. But there are other outcomes from keeping them “miserable”. Humans need a certain level of food to thrive. Infant brains will never recover from stark malnutrition. That’s the obvious Israeli plan for Gaza. For the rest of the stolen lands, the Israelis do their damnedest to keep food supplies minimal. Restricting water to grow crops is part of the scheme, and destroying such crops as manage to get planted is another. Ditto for the farm animals and long-term stuff like olive trees. When there isn’t much water sanitation also suffers. Expensive water is another one. Israel cheerfully sells bottled water to the Palestinians which few can afford to use for sanitation purposes.

Destroying local water supplies helps with all the schemes, and the local criminal thieves (“settlers”) have also poisoned wells and other water sources. The Authorities aren’t yet reported to be so blatant, but subtle poisoning surely is an option to be added to forced deportation (another Nakba) or apartheid schemes. Few people know of the advances in chemical/biological warfare in the past half century, and Ethnic Weapons is one of those new areas.

www*usa-anti-communist.com/pdf/Military_Review_November_1970.pdf

(another experiment here – cut/paste the above, then replace the * with a “dot”)

There are many obvious variations to the selective murder scheme. The above story was one of the first public revelations, but murder-science never stops.

I can’t vouch for the “David Kelly” connection, but otherwise the piece contains much useful information.

I don’t doubt for a moment that contingency plans for a new death march exist today and have for many years. Given the chance, those plans will be used. Suppose mild nuclear war happens somewhere, and threatens to grow larger. People will be at least as transfixed as they were during the Cuban Missile Crisis or after 9/11. I read a lot of history, and have seen that the horribly botched Hurtgen Forest battle of WW2 has been almost entirely forgotten because it was closely followed by the Battle of the Bulge. The massive incompetence of the Allied Command from Eisenhower on down has been successfully obscured, and I argue the same would happen with a new Nakba if the Israelis see their chance.

Something is going to happen over there, for the demographic pressures are beginning to reach pressure-cooker levels. It isn’t just the Palestinians who are trying to breed like flies. Israel has been pouring enormous levels of resources into stimulating the birth rate of the non-Arab citizens.

Israeli government policy encourages population growth with benefits such as child allowances, free schooling from the age of three and funding for up to four in vitro fertility treatments a year.

It also offers incentives to Jews abroad, and even to Israeli emigrants, to move to Israel, measures needed when Israel was founded in 1948 but perhaps less crucial when the population is surging.

They can afford all of this because of all the free money from coerced US taxpayers.

The result is about what you’d expect:

Today’s population of 8.4 million is forecast to reach 15.6 million by 2059 and 20.6 million in a high case scenario, meaning the small country could simply run out of room.

“Israel is on the road to an ecological, social and quality of life disaster because as the population density rises it becomes more violent, congested and unpleasant to live in and with absolutely no room for any species other than humans,” said Alon Tal, a professor at Ben-Gurion University’s Institutes for Desert Research and founder of the Green Movement party.

Israel has 352 people per sq km, up from 215 in 1990, and forecast by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) to reach 501-880 in 2059.

Excluding the nearly empty Negev desert, which occupies more than half of Israel, population density jumps to 980 people per sq km, just a little below Bangladesh.

(biased account and some statistics not reliable, but still a useful read)

Why do you suppose the neocons are pressing so hard for the US to finish destroying Syria? The little outhouse of a nation-state desperately wants the land and water in the north. Ditto for Lebanon, and why do you suppose Hezbollah is so relentlessly demonized? That organization successfully halted an earlier land grab in Lebanon, and punctured the myth of Zionist Invincibility. Israel has been preparing for Round Two on that one ever since the defeat there. I predict an awful lot of civilians are going to be “accidentally” killed when it happens. Think of the way the “mowing the grass” murder sprees in Gaza have gone.

Israel needs fewer Palestinians, and is working on that problem on many fronts. It needs more land and water because of the totally irresponsible breeding encouraged by the Israeli government. That pesthole is going to cause endless trouble for the US and all its neighbors until it is somehow reined in.

Joe J Tedesky

February 23, 2017 at 6:08 pm

Zachary your bringing up the Hurtgen Forest battle is why I like reading you’re comments and the others who comment here…I learn something from the references left here on this comment board. My uncle a longtime ago did mention the Hurtgen Forest battle because he fought at the Bulge, but you’re bringing it up refreshes my memory. Thanks!

While for the good or bad of it I’m watching the U.S. Government chase Native Americans off land the original inhabitants wanted to safe from oil spills polluting their water, and our government now for all practical purposes has a dragnet operation going after the undocumented migrants who pick our fruit, and here we are looking to see if the U.S. can come up with a fair remedy for Palestintian’s to live side by side with their Zionist masters, and I say ‘What’.

This is so depressing. How do the governments of the United States and Israel think this is going to end well? The Middle East is entering complete madness. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air”.

Bill Bodden

February 23, 2017 at 3:53 pm

How do the governments of the United States and Israel think this is going to end well?

They don’t think that far ahead – just short-term and immediate gratification.

rosemerry

February 23, 2017 at 4:56 pm

I saw an interview with Shir Hever on the Real News Network, where he commented on the new leadership of Hamas, the leader being from the military wing of Hamas for the first time. After winning elections (free and fair) in 2006, it may seem that the vicious attacks on Gaza, as well as the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and of course East Jerusalem, could lead to much bloodshed, now mainly limited to the defenceless occupied Palestinians,as there will be nothing to lose as Israel becomes bolder and more desperate. The pretence that BDS is a terrible threat to the existence of Israel (!) shows how slight is any feeling of fairness in the minds of so many Israeli settlers.

Az

February 23, 2017 at 5:07 pm

Gaza needs to be rightfully returned as does the West Bank. Neither Egypt not Jordan freely gave them up.
Israel was not and is not under God ordained thievery. They had their land. They lost it. God usually does not give do-overs to sissy bullies who act without Righteousness.

bob fearn

February 23, 2017 at 5:48 pm

I wrote to the Israeli state department and asked them what was the basis for antisemitism. They did not respond.

It has always seemed strange that in so many countries Jews are disliked by so many. Do these people just wake up one morning and decide they don’t like Jews? Why don’t they wake up and decide they don’t like Buddhists, Norwegians or Anglicans?

For everything there is a reason. The reason for antisemitism must be understood by the public and the Jews.

Being of serphedic background I myself can really relate to this article. Israel has always been a rogue state, from its conception. 1947 the ashkanazi’s terrorized all the local populations and the British . The forced themselves upon the palestinian lands and have been doing so ever since. The bombing of the the warship in 67 Liberty affair comes to mind. Israel has always been a racist arpathied state. The more time goes by the more isignaficant Israel will become .
Post scriptum :The ashanazi’s at this rate will end up with greater Tel-Aviv and they will eventually be forced out of all the occupied ;and . Kharma has a way of getting to u

Israeli

February 23, 2017 at 7:08 pm

It is dead end dillema maybe for you, but the solution is simple and clear. For Israel to stay prosperous and democratic it should implement combined approach: recognize city state in Gaza, and support mass emigration of West Bank Palestinians to rich aging European countries (e.g. Germany). Then Jews will finally be majority in whole Holy Land and can rebuild the Third Temple.

John

February 24, 2017 at 12:43 am

Why not send the AshhkeNazis back to their ancestral homelands, such as Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, New York, etc?

Christian Israeli

February 24, 2017 at 10:14 am

That is another lie used by muslims and liberals: Israel is not just a country of Ashkenazi Jews but also Sephardi Jews and Christians who have continuous presence in Palestine from old Jewish kingdom, over christian Byzantine empire, crusade Jerusalem kingdom, british Palestine and finally modern state of Israel. Arabs are invaders. All Sephardi Jews were expelled from Arab countries and migrated to Israel, noone is asking about their rights. Look what is happening to Christian comunities in Egypt, Syria, Iraq who are present there for millenia. Their only safe heaven is Israel.

Zachary Smith

February 25, 2017 at 3:35 am

support mass emigration of West Bank Palestinians to rich aging European countries (e.g. Germany).

What a really creative way to describe the Next Nakba. Zionist propagandists must have a new manual which hasn’t yet been leaked.

Mary in Las Vegas

February 23, 2017 at 11:28 pm

Unfortunately for the US, either China or Russia or both together will come to the rescue of the Palestinians..and in that move, will make the US, at last, the not so heavy influence in the mideast (Don’t stop with Syria!)….Israel wants the control of the most valuable water sources in the area, which the Palestinians have had within their borders for decades and for which Israel is salivating. Let’s just think about the US going into Canada, mile by mile, building up American ‘cities’, it would not be tolerated, as the current takeover of Palestinian lands by Israel is not acceptable. There has to be a two country solution and must be dictated by a consortium of honorable, just governments, which is NOT the US….there will be no other way to accomplish it. The UN would be the perfect facilitator, but unfortunately it is too weak, being hamstrung by the US

Christian Israeli

February 24, 2017 at 10:30 am

Another spin by liberals: there is no such thing as illegal settlements. As I have written above, Jews and Christians have continuous presence in whole Holy Land and have right to live there. They are not going to Mecca or Medina, they are going to Jerusalem. Even without that, since old times people were valuable resources; more people meant more wealth, more prosperity so they were welcomed, even stollen. That is why US brought immigrants (even slaves), and now we see it also in aging Europe. If Jews are crazy enough to live in the desert, then let them: they will bring prosperity to that region. Comment about water sources: who cares about that when Israel can afford desalination factories.

Zachary Smith

February 24, 2017 at 4:46 pm

“Christian Israeli”

The Zionist trolls are getting creative, but this is foolishness beyond belief. There won’t be any native Christians living in Israel who would say anything like this. At least not any who aren’t in some kind of mental institution.

But come to think of it, this person doesn’t claim to be a native. Either this is a silly lie, or some kind of US Fundie trying to get brownie points with a Palestinian-hating Jesus. Close reading of the New Testament by these types could easily find lots of “proof” the tall, light-skinned & blue-eyed Jesus truly disliked the subhuman Paleos.

Christian Israeli

February 24, 2017 at 11:39 pm

Sorry what are you trying to say? Your post is without any argument or content. You can maybe sell your bullshit propaganda to some uninformed liberal fool but I know you too well. What would happen to Jews and Christians in Holy Land without Israel is the same what is happening to Copts who are killed in front of churchs in Egypt or christians in Syria who are beheaded just because they have different religion. Israel is a refugee camp of Sephardi Jews and Christians from Muslim countries and Ashkenazi Jews from Nazi Germany. To all the countries like Iran or Pakistan who are calling for the destruction of Israel it should be 100% clear: Jews were once victims and never again; if you atrack Israel in order to destroy it you will be bombed back to the stone age. If the arguments of power is the only thing you understand, power is what you will get. And if you are calling for the destruction of our Holy Places, Mecca and Medina are in the shooting range and it will also be destroyed. Only way is the way of peace with the mutual respect and recognition but without any illusion: any agression will have appropriate response. Jews are so overwhelmed by lies and propaganda that even they become to believe that the don’ t have right to live in Holy Land, that settlements are illegal: this has to stop.

For what it’s worth, the murderous and thieving Zionists were quite evenhanded during the Nakba – they murdered and expelled the Christians same as they did the Muslims.

Because they’re God’s Favorite People, the ordinary rules of decency and ethics don’t apply. So stealing is OK. Casual murder of Palestinians is OK.

Waving around the nukes if anybody tries to interfere is OK.

brent

February 24, 2017 at 1:41 am

Mr. Chuckman proposes the US impose a solution, something requiring a political evolution in US political culture.

A more direct route toward resolution, two states or one, would be a campaign for EQUALITY OR INDEPENDENCE emerging from Palestinians culture. Putting down stones and making placards would alter the established narratives and change the chemistry of the conflict. Right away such a campaign would be enjoined. First by many Israeli Jews, American Jews, peace and justice activists in major cities of the world and not far behind by the political establishment in Europe and eventually America.

Nowhere in the world had Jews enjoyed a more positive neighborly relationship as in Palestine prior to the massive immigration pressures. The mutual respect was destroyed by the “land without a people” foolishness/self-deception. No people, no rights.

Upon its founding the PLO advocated one state, secular and democratic, with equality for all. That was attacked as “the destruction of Israel”. The continuous acquisition of territory by force since then has constituted a threat to an exclusive state. As EQUALITY demonstrates it’s far more powerful than stones, advocates for a Jewish state will set about designing proposals for two states that would be acceptable to a majority of Palestinians.

Palestinians have it in their power to “take what is rightfully theirs” and in the process make a major contribution to a more peaceful world.

ariely shein

February 24, 2017 at 7:08 am

The 2 states solution is not working for the last 70 years.
Don’t repeat endless times the faulty solution attempt!
The Palestinian state idea is dated back from the ME partition by France and UK into the artificial states Iraq- Syria-Lebanon
The world faces enough troubles with the disintegration of the artificial states.
Avoid creating one additional artificial state named Palestine.
***************
The only sustainable long term solution is:
!!!! ARABS GOVERNED BY ARAB GOVERNMENTS AND JEWS GOVERNED BY ISRAEL!!!!!!
***************.
1:Gaza will be an integral part of Egypt.

2:Areas heavily populate by Arabs in the West Bank which are 98% of Arab population IN THE WEST BANK (Examples Jenin, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Jericho, Ramallah and many villages) will be integrated in Jordan

3:Parts of the land inhabited by Arabs currently with Israeli identity cards along the border lines will integrated in Jordan ( examples: Um el Fahem, Tayibe,Silwan, Sur Baher)

4: Areas populated by Jews in the west bank will integrated in Israel.
—————–
Both Arabs and Jew will remain in their current homes, villages and towns- nobody will have to move physically and will be governed by their own people

Zachary Smith

February 25, 2017 at 3:41 am

The only sustainable long term solution is:
!!!! ARABS GOVERNED BY ARAB GOVERNMENTS AND JEWS GOVERNED BY ISRAEL!!!!!!

I don’t believe this fellow has been given the new propaganda line. He/She is still into straight-up ethnic cleansing, at which time there will be Peace In The Mid-East until Holy Israel makes its next Land Grab.

Lou E

February 24, 2017 at 5:44 pm

hows your stock in Degusa?

Tom

February 24, 2017 at 8:12 pm

Mr. Chuckman’s discussion of rates of population growth or decline is statistically accurate, but misses the real reason virtually every government pushes for growth: it is a mathematical necessity in debt-based fiat monetary systems. Take away the Ponzi schemes all central banks operate, and there’s no need for the population to grow. Given current global problems with population, wouldn’t it be better to design monetary systems to be stable rather than ones that require endless growth regardless of the consequences to quality of life?

Also, we always hear only of the one-state and two-state solutions. We never hear that a Jewish state in the middle of a hostile Muslim population was a bad idea from the get-go and that the best solution for everyone involved is to cut their losses and call it off. It would be much easier for the rest of the world to take in the Jewish population of Palestine as skilled immigrants than to take in the Arab population of Palestine as angry refugees . We could call this the Ahmadinejad Solution: not the deliberate mis-translation by Israel of the former Iranian leader’s words as “wipe Israel off the map” which has falsely entered the record, but his actual words that “Israel will disappear into the dustbin of history”. The former translation implies military action, the latter implies a natural, non-violent historical progression of people coming to their senses and abandoning the doomed project of a Jewish state in the wrong place.

Soloview

February 28, 2017 at 7:30 pm

The Jew-hatred displayed here (starting with the author) knows no bounds. It is automatically and apriori assumed that Jews do not have a right to a state based on their national-religious identity to which they held steadfastly for three thousand years. It has now been decreed from some BS political high ground that Jews are Jews and therefore they do not have a homeland even though this idea was confirmed by the United Nations and Israel was accepted as a full sitting member in 1948. We all know what happened. Mr Chapman may prevail on the naifs here with a tale that Israel “planned” the Six Day War, but people who familiar with history know that when Moshe Dayan struck, more than half of Nasser Egypt’s tanks, and practically all of Jordan’s were sitting on the borders of Israel ready to pounce. I guess the Jews were not ready to oblige them in their final solution to the Jewish Question that was blared 24/7 from Cairo, Amman, Damascus and Baghdad. There were no Palestinians around when the Jews fought off the Arabs in 1967; they were Arabs (referedd to as Fedayiin) who did not mind the occupation of “Palestinian” land (under the Mandate) by Egypt in Gaza and by Jordan, in most of the West Bank, between 1948 and 1967. The new “nation” identity rose out of the West Bank and became the cause celebre of the Soviets and allied Leftist revolutionaries. That Israel had been ready to swap land for peace with the Palestinian Authority (or State if you wish) is also well documented. Its government signed the Oslo agreement, and gave back Gaza (actually dismantled Jewish settlements there and left a lot of infrastructure behind). It did not bring peace. Within four years, Gaza was in the hands of Hamas, and until the Wall terrorism against Israeli civilians was mounting. It is been clearer and clearer that there is no willingness on the Palestinians to negotiate a real “two-state” solution with Israel but simply create conditions that would lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. No Palestinian politician would ever agree to that. No “progressive” in the world would ever accept Israel for what it is – a state by the Jews for the Jews (and people who want to live there with Jews on that premise). It is clear to everyone in Israel, whether right or left, politically. It is clear to all Israel friends in the world, left or right. No two-state solution involving Israel is possible until the crazy obsession with destroying the Jews passes into history for good.

FarisMee

February 25, 2017 at 3:03 am

A one-state solution resulting in an arab majority is a known-known. It’s simple kindy-grade stuff. Trump knows it. The Jews know it. This is merely a pre-announcement of a coming genocide visited on the Palestinians by Amerika and its deputy Israel.

Vesuvius

February 25, 2017 at 5:41 am

Thank you for this very good article!

Mr Chuckman observes: “The macabre dance of Israel and the United States that we’ve had for decades yields today’s de facto reality of Israel existing as a protected American colony in the Middle East, one in which all kinds of international norms and laws are ignored or suspended, one where millions live with no rights and no citizenship.”

True enough. But isn’t it (also) the opposite? The tail wagging the dog here? Ever since the tragic SS Liberty scandal (1967) when some 40 U.S. personnel were killed by Israeli Aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea, and some 70 were seriously injured, The Israelis have taken Uncle Sam to the cleaners, for free. And American taxpayers made to pay billions of USD to Israel, every year.

Vesuvius

February 25, 2017 at 6:55 am

The problem here is: Israel wants the whole of the area, i.e. original Palestine as it was under the British, plus Lebanon and Jordan, Syria, maybe more. No arabs allowed, they have to disappear so oder so. Period.